238 - Artie Shaw's Nightmare: The Big Band Sound Goes to War w/ Michael Doyle

Author and journalist Michael Doyle's new book, Nightmare in the Pacific: The World War II Saga of Artie Shaw and His Navy Band (Univ. of North Texas Press, 2025) is an adventurous tale and a must read. Shaw, a leading big band leader into the early 1940s, joined the Navy a few months after Pearl Harbor. He formed a Navy big band of accomplished and to varying degrees roguish musicians and led them across the Pacific during the war, entertaining troops, finding trouble and dealing with grueling hardships. Michael Doyle joins us this week to give a preview of this book and musicians at war.

Michael Doyle's website: www.doyleauthor.com

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This podcast and this episode are copyright Craig Estlinbaum, 2025.  

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Michael Doyle & Artie Shaw
• 3:07 Researching and Writing "Nightmare in the Pacific"
• 6:08 "...and then I ran over somebody..."
• 10:00 Artie wanted to win.
• 12:36 Some money went to expenses, some went to pleasure.
• 14:30 "I'll be better to you than the infantry would be."
• 20:20 "They were completely ill-prepared for war."
• 25:27 Guadalcanal - The heart of darkness.
• 32:58 Baseball, music and building morale in the military.
• 37:25 Artie and the 501 Band go Down Under
• 39:28 Myths of war.
• 42:40 The Navy 501 Band after Artie Shaw
• 44:32 Living off the Artie Shaw library
• 47:32 A summer night in Candlestick Park